Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka has found her stride at the 2025 Canadian Open, with the 27-year-old fan favorite advancing to the Montréal tournament's quarterfinals as she prepares to chase a third US Open title later this month.
After parting ways with coach Patrick Mouratoglou just 10 days ago, world No. 49 Osaka will contend in her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in three years on Tuesday, when she'll face off against Ukraine's No. 13 Elina Svitolina for a spot in the semifinals.
"I think I need to pace myself and go for the mini goals, and they'll eventually turn into the big goals," the Japanese star said after topping Latvia's No. 26 Jeļena Ostapenko in the third round on Friday.
Tuesday's other quarterfinal sees US star and 2025 Australian Open winner Madison Keys on the Canadian court, as the world No. 8 takes on No. 19 Clara Tauson after the Danish national upset reigning French Open champion No. 3 Iga Świątek in straight sets on Sunday.
Already punching their tickets to the semifinals are Kazakhstan's No. 12 Elena Rybakina and 18-year-old phenom No. 85 Victoria Mboko — the youngest home-grown semifinalist in Canadian Open history — who each advanced with straight-set victories on Monday.
How to watch Osaka at the Canadian Open quarterfinals
Keys and Tauson will kick off Tuesday's quarterfinals action at 6 PM ET, with Osaka clashing with Svitolina shortly afterward.
Live coverage of the 2025 Canadian Open will continue to air on the Tennis Channel.
The 2025 Wimbledon Championships wrapped its second round on Thursday, with the grass court Grand Slam seeing just 15 of the tournament's 32 seeded players advance to the Friday and Saturday's third round.
A full half of the WTA's Top 10 players did not survive the week, with 2024 Wimbledon finalist and world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini joining four first-round star exits by falling to unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in a three-set, second-round battle on Wednesday.
At the same time, unseeded fan favorites like Japan's No. 53 Naomi Osaka and England's own No. 40 Emma Raducanu secured third-round spots at the London Slam, joining top surviving contenders like No. 4 Iga Świątek and defending Wimbledon champion No. 16 Barbora Krejčíková.
Notably, a full five US players managed to move ahead, tied for the largest national contingent still standing at the tournament.
Led by 2025 Australian Open champion No. 8 Madison Keys, the US group also includes No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 12 Amanda Anisimova, as well as unseeded players No. 54 Danielle Collins and No. 55 Hailey Baptiste.
With matches against Świątek and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, respectively, Collins and Baptiste have a tough third round ahead — though Navarro's battle against the 2024 champ Krejčíková arguably headlines Saturday's slate.
How to watch Wimbledon this weekend
While world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is still holding strong in the dwindling field, this year's Wimbledon play is proving that the London Slam is anyone's to take, as the grass court humbles even the sport's top stars.
Expect the twists and turns to continue as tennis's best battle for spots in Sunday's Round of 16.
Round-of-32 Wimbledon play kicks off at 6 AM ET on Friday, with live continuous coverage of the tournament airing on ESPN.
Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun!
Every week on Sports Are Fun! presented by Amazon Business, co-hosts soccer legend Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes on the biggest women's sports headlines.
This week, retired NWSL great Merritt Mathias joined the Sports Are Fun! team once again. And while there was plenty of soccer and basketball talk throughout the episode, US tennis Coco Gauff and her 2025 French Open win took center stage.
"First and foremost, Coco Gauff," said O'Hara, setting the scene. "What an absolute victory for her — wins the French Open, beats Sabalenka. And she's talked about this win, how she has manifested this and the amount of mental visualization that she's put into it. youI'm curious, do you guys manifest?"
"Of course!" Mathias said with a laugh. "If you're not manifesting, what are you doing?"
"I really think we saw an incredible display of her mental toughness, her resilience, her composure, in that match," said Diaz. "And I'm just so proud of her. She's the first American since Serena Williams to win it in 10 years."
"I love the manifesting part. I love that she shares all of what she's willing to do in order to be great," added Mathias. "If you're a young girl wanting to play tennis, to see that there is so much that goes into being great other than just the practice... It's cool to do that. You should lean into that."
Alongside the French Open finalists, Sports Are Fun! also tackled the USWNT’s emerging core, Texas's Women's College World Series win, the NWSL standings, US Women taking home the grand prize at TST, and more.
'Sports Are Fun!' goes all in on the Gauff-Sabalenka rivalry
According to the Sports Are Fun! crew, the budding rivalry between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka is just what the tennis world needs.
"Before we go to our next little topic, I think we have to talk about the post-game press conference," Mathias interjected. "Sabalenka basically comes off of losing this championship match. It's well fought. But over the course of the match, she has a lot of errors — I think it was 70."
"Obviously tensions are high — she started to unravel, we all saw the spiral happen on the court," she continued. "So she goes into this postgame presser and is asked a question about the match, and she's basically like, 'I don't believe Coco Gauff played well or had an incredible game, I think I struggled and had a lot of errors.'"
"Both of those things can be true," O'Hara said. "If you didn't have a great match but Coco did have a good match, you can say both. But she was not."
"You should be gracious in defeat, right?" she continued. "And it is very difficult as an athlete at times. I've seen many people, myself included, say things post-match that I wish I could take back."
"10,000%," agreed Mathias. "But I think this is also what the tennis world always wanted Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams to be, which was never that — Maria Sharapova was never stepping even close to Serena Williams. This though? This is epic. This is like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on the women's side."
"Yeah," O'Hara agreed. "We now have our two athletes that are going to go head-to-head, expected to be in the finals."
"And one bit of a head case, so it makes it even better," laughed Mathias.
About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara
'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.
Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.
From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"
Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.
As tune-up tournaments like this week's 2025 Italian Open dominate tennis ahead of the 2025 French Open, one familiar name is back in the headlines, with world No. 48 Naomi Osaka making significant strides on the clay court.
Coming off her first tournament win since 2021 at L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo — a WTA 125 event — last weekend, Osaka immediately advanced to the Italian Open's third round this week.
The four-time Grand Slam winner has shown glimpses of brilliance after returning from her 2023 pregnancy, with Osaka now aiming to keep up momentum on her historically weakest surface.
"Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst," Osaka posted after her May 4th victory. "That's one of my favorite things about life though, there's always room to grow and evolve."
Osaka isn't the only tennis star cooking in Europe, as heavy-hitters like world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Świątek, and No. 3 Coco Gauff also moved ahead in Rome as they look to hone their Roland-Garros form.
Not usually a clay court specialist, Sabalenka has looked particularly formidable, defeating Gauff to take the 2025 Madrid Open title just last week.
How to watch the 2025 Italian Open
The 2025 Italian Open's Round of 32 kicks off early Saturday morning, with continuing coverage on The Tennis Channel.
World No. 4 Coco Gauff hit an exclamation point on Thursday, as the soon-to-be highest-ranked US player ousted clay-court titan Iga Świątek from the 2025 Madrid Open semifinals with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 performance.
"The mentality that I had in the whole match was aggressive," the 21-year-old said after her victory. "Maybe it wasn't [Świątek's] best level today, but I think I forced her into some awkward positions."
As for for No. 2 Świątek, Thursday’s loss continued a near-year of frustration for the 23-year-old, who's failed to advance past a WTA Tour semifinal round since winning her fourth French Open last summer.
"Coco played good, but I think it's on me that I didn’t really move well," she said after the semifinal. "I wasn't ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and with that kind of game. It was pretty bad."
With the once-dominant Świątek struggling on clay, questions are forming in the lead-up to the May 25th start of the Roland-Garros — the second Grand Slam of the pro tennis season.
While Świątek will hope to break her stumbling streak by defending her three straight French Open titles later this month, Gauff — who, prior to this week, hadn't advanced past a quarterfinals round since her 2024 WTA Finals win last November — is rising from her own frustrating 2025 start at just the right time.
The 2022 French Open finalist is grabbing significant momentum before returning to Stade Roland-Garros — but Gauff faces one more opponent before she can focus on the clay court's Grand Slam, with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka awaiting her in Saturday's 2025 Madrid Open finale.
How to watch the 2025 Madrid Open championship match
Gauff will contend with Sabalenka in the 2025 Madrid Open women's singles final at 12:30 PM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on the Tennis Channel.
For the second year in a row, there will be a US tennis player facing Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the US Open, after Jessica Pegula wrapped up the best week of her career.
Having reached the quarterfinals in all four major tournaments, Pegula finally broke through to her first Slam semifinal and then final this week with wins over Iga Swiatek and Karolina Muchova.
A career-best run
Currently ranked No. 6 in the world, Pegula has played some of the best tennis of her career recently, reaching the quarterfinal of the Australian Open in 2021-23, and the quarterfinal of the French Open in 2022, and the US Open in 2023.
But Wednesday's straight-set win over World No. 1 Swiatek proved to be her first time breaking 'the quarterfinal curse,' with the hope of carrying the momentum all the way to the final.
Pegula had to battle back from a slow first set in her semifinal on Thursday, as Muchova took an early 6-1 lead and then a 3-0 advantage in the second set.
"I came out flat, but she was playing unbelievable," Pegula said after the match. "She made me look like a beginner. I was about to burst into tears because it was embarrassing. She was destroying me." But the 30-year-old battled back to take the second set 6-4 and rolled to a 6-2 win in the deciding third set, continuing her impressive 15-1 record since the Paris Olympics.
"I was able to find a way, find some adrenaline, find my legs," Pegula said. "At the end of the second set into the third set, I started to play how I wanted to play. It took a while but I don't know how I turned that around honestly."
Finishing the job
Pegula will face World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated her in Cincinnati, and who advanced past Emma Navarro in straight sets on Thursday. Sabalenka has only dropped one set this US Open, after not participating in the Olympics. The Belarusian will be looking for her second-ever Grand Slam title after coming up just short against Coco Gauff in New York in 2023.
"Hopefully I can get some revenge out here," said Pegula.
With the Grand Slam calendar nearing its close, stars flocked to this week's Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati to prepare for this year's US Open. Reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka earned the win at the WTA 1000 event, taking down US player Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-5 on Monday.
Fatigue impacts returning Olympic tennis players
With a uniquely crowded schedule this summer, partially due to the Paris Olympics, players entered this week with varying levels of fitness and fatigue.
China's newly crowned Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng fell in the Round of 16 and Croatian silver medalist Donna Vekic failed to advance out of the Round of 64. Bronze medalist Iga Świątek reached the semifinals before losing to Sabalenka, while Pegula made this week's final match after competing for the US in Paris.
Fellow Team USA Olympians Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro fell in Cincinnati's Round of 32 and Round of 64, respectively.
Rest aided Sabalenka's Cincinnati Open win
On the other hand, Sabalenka missed Wimbledon due to a shoulder injury and, as a Belarusian athlete, did not participate in the Olympics. The world No. 3-ranked player returned to the hardcourt looking as sharp as she did at the beginning of the year, ultimately earning Monday's victory.
"This trophy means a lot, it is a really big achievement, especially coming after injury, with this fear of getting injured again," Sabalenka told press in Cincinnati. "My team did everything they could to make sure I felt as good as I can and I am proud of myself I was able to handle all of those emotions."
Tennis stars shift focus to US Open
The 26-year-old, who hit her first No. 1 ranking in September 2023 before relinquishing the title back to Świątek, will be hunting her third Grand Slam title and first at the US Open when play begins at the New York tournament next week. Sabalenka finished the 2023 US Open as the runner-up to Gauff, who earned her first major tournament title in three sets last September.
With a short turnaround and major surface change from the Paris Games, form and fitness could play a major role at this year's US Open. A number of athletes declined to participate in the Olympics in order to focus on the year's final Slam, and all eyes will be on Queens next week to see if those decisions paid off.
Prime Video is hitting the tennis court with Thursday's streaming premiere of UNINTERRUPTED's Top Class Tennis.
After four seasons of the men's high school basketball-focused Top Class: The Life and Times of The Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, athlete empowerment brand UNINTERRUPTED is expanding its purview to tennis with a new four-episode mixed-gender docuseries.
Junior tennis stars take centerstage
Behind the concept is 2017 US Open champion and world No. 45 pro Sloane Stephens, who co-executive produced the series alongside LeBron James and Maverick Carter, co-founders of UNINTERRUPTED and its production and entertainment development arm, The SpringHill Company.
Top Class Tennis follows four players on their journeys to the Orange Bowl, arguably the junior circuit’s Grand Slam equivalent. The Florida-based international tournament was established in 1947 and has crowned a long list of future pros as champions, from retired great Steffi Graf to current star Coco Gauff.
Stealing the spotlight this season is rising Harvard sophomore and 2022-23 USA Today Girls Tennis Player of the Year Stephanie Yakoff, as well as five-time junior title winner and incoming Texas freshman Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo. Both already have WTA creds, with Yakoff featuring at the 2023 BNP Paribas Open while Anazagasty-Pursoo competed on three Grand Slam courts.
Women's sports storms the big screen
Top Class Tennis is just the latest in what's shaping up to be a women’s sports documentary boom.
From Max's LFG about the USWNT's fight for equal pay and Netflix's Under Pressure chronicling the 2023 World Cup to ESPN+’s 2023-24 NCAA basketball series Full Court Press, athletes in women’s sports have taken streamers by storm.
UNINTERRUPTED's Top Class Tennis is available for streaming now on Prime Video.
Few high-ranked seeds remain standing as Wimbledon caps off the Round of 16, with the Grand Slam's grass surface proving itself a great equalizer.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and World No. 2 Coco Gauff suffered upsets in the third and fourth rounds respectively, while No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from play with a shoulder injury. Both of last year's finalists are also out, with 2023 champion Markéta Vondroušová falling early in the tournament alongside 2023 runner-up Ons Jabeur.
This year's competition has seen impressive performances from several former college athletes — a point of interest in a sport where many skip school in favor of immediately going pro.
Texas alum Lulu Sun upset Emma Raducanu on Sunday, with UVA grad Emma Navarro beating Gauff that same day. Navarro will join Gauff later this month as part of the US Olympic tennis team, punching her ticket after Madison Keys withdrew from the event.
World No. 4 and 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina is the highest-ranked seed still on the schedule this year. 2024 French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini has also kept up her run of form, advancing to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal after Sunday's victory over Madison Keys.
World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka is out of Wimbledon, withdrawing due to a shoulder injury sustained in Berlin.
Sabalenka also recently pulled out of the Olympics, citing injury concerns with the change of surface.
"I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating," Sabalenka said on Instagram. "I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.
"This tournament means so much to me and I promise I'll be back stronger than ever next year."
Since winning the Australian Open to kick off the season, Sabalenka has struggled with a back injury. She also dealt with illness at the French Open, falling in the quarterfinals to 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva.
Sabalenka has been replaced in the draw by Mira's older sister Erika Andreeva, who lost in qualifiers last week.